SAGINAW, MI — Emergency room doctors must be ready to treat any type of injury that comes through the door, and during a training session today in Saginaw County, residents working in local hospitals had a chance to see how the weapons work that could cause those injuries.

"We are going to show you some things you are going to see the aftermath of so you can look at what to expect from some of these things," Range Master Tom Heriter of the Saginaw Police Department said.

Puneet Gupta, a medical resident in Central Michigan University's Emergency Medicine program, volunteered to get hit with a stun gun during the training.

When Heriter fired a stun gun into Gupta's back, two metal barbs went through Gupta's shirt and into his skin and an audible clicking sound could be heard as the device sent 50,000 volts to the barbs for five seconds.

Gupta's body became tense and he let out a sustained yell as he fell to the floor, supported by two others standing nearby.

"That 5 seconds is the equivalent of a 30-minute workout at the gym," Heriter said.

Gupta said he was "feeling queasy" after being shocked by the stun gun.

"I learned that getting Tased sucks," Gupta said, adding he wanted to feel what it was like to be hit with a stun gun to help him treat patients with injuries from stun guns.

The barbs were easily removed after the demonstration, but emergency room doctors sometimes have more trouble getting the barbs, which are "just like fish hooks" out of a patient's skin, according to George Moylan, DO, a faculty member of the CMU Emergency Medicine program and facilitator of the firearms demonstration.

Gupta called the stun gun experience "painful but not unbearable."

After the demonstration that also included information about less-than-lethal beanbag guns, the group of about 50 residents went to the gun range to practice shooting.

At the gun range, Saginaw police officers loaded an M-16, a .300 Winchester deer-hunting rifle and an AK-47 to demonstrate the difference in the damage caused by the different types of ammunition.

Sgt. Erik Skabardis and Officer Jeff Madaj of the Saginaw Police Department talked to the medical residents about several different rifles. Skabardis showed the group an AK-47 and noted the model of gun has been used in some gang-related shootings in Saginaw.

Sgt. Skabardis fired the guns downrange, exploding a gallon jug filled with colored water. Skabardis told the group that while some of the bullets fired from the different guns are close to the same size, they carry different loads, so some of the rounds travel much faster than others.

He said that the high-powered Winchester rifle shoots a bullet about 3,300 feet per second, which was the fastest of the rifles there. While some of the jugs were slightly ruptured, the jug destroyed by the deer rifle was blown apart by the round.

Several residents took turns shooting the rifles and also handguns at another nearby range.

"Part of it is being able to recognize the potential injuries from different objects," said Millie Willy, an assistant program director at CMU's Emergency Medicine Residency Program. She noted that the experience helps improve communication between police and the medical community.

Police officers are faced with gun violence at times while on the job and must be prepared to deal with "people who don't want to obey" on a regular basis. The training is meant to help medical residents get used to the things they might see in the emergency room daily while practicing.

"I wanted to actually experience it so I can say, 'I was there' to patients," Gupta said after the stun gun demonstration. "Sometimes that makes all the difference."